The preferred way to retrieve the context information for the current session is to use the CONTEXT_INFO function. Session context information is also stored in the context_info columns in the following system views:

sys.dm_exec_requests

sys.dm_exec_sessions

sys.sysprocesses

SET CONTEXT_INFO cannot be specified in a user-defined function. You cannot supply a null value to SET CONTEXT_INFO because the views holding the values do not allow for null values.

SET CONTEXT_INFO does not accept expressions other than constants or variable names. To set the context information to the result of a function call, you must first include the result of the function call in a binary or varbinary variable.

When you issue SET CONTEXT_INFO in a stored procedure or trigger, unlike in other SET statements, the new value set for the context information persists after the stored procedure or trigger is completed.

A. Setting context information by using a constant

The following example demonstrates SET CONTEXT_INFO by setting the value and displaying the results. Note that querying sys.dm_exec_sessions requires SELECT and VIEW SERVER STATE permissions, whereas using the CONTEXT_INFO function does not.